READ THE CITIZENS' VOICE

Digital Only Subscription
Read the digital e-Edition of The Citizens' Voice on your PC or mobile device, and have 24/7 access to breaking news, local sports, contests, and more at citizensvoice.com or on our mobile apps.

Digital Services
Have news alerts sent to your mobile device or email, read the e-Edition, sign up for daily newsletters, enter contests, take quizzes, download our mobile apps and see the latest e-circulars.

Contact Us
See department contacts, frequently asked questions, request customer service support, submit a photo or place an ad.

Article Tools

DALLAS — Not many high school students have published a novel, let alone had the time to revise more than one edition.

But Trucksville resident Audrey Aristeo, a 16-year-old junior at Dallas High School, has done just that. Inspired by the “Harry Potter” series, she began the years-long process of writing her own book when she was in fifth grade, an effort that ended with her publishing a novel when she was in eighth grade.

It all began one afternoon when Audrey had nothing better to do.

“I had a whole bunch of lined paper, so I just started to write,” she said. “It wasn’t anything particularly important to me, but I love fiction. I love reading fiction and I love writing fiction. So I wrote fiction.”

At first, the draft turned out to be little more than a “rip-off of ‘Harry Potter’” that her mother, Abby Aristeo, 57, found “terrible,” Audrey said.

“That crushed me, but then I realized, slowly, that she was right,” she said.

Motivated by the criticism, as well as by other influences — including a teacher who questioned her “weird” choice of character names — Audrey began to read more and better learn how to tell her own story, she said.

“I wasn’t trying to write for an audience,” Audrey said. “I was writing for me. I was expressing an idea. That’s how I approached this.”

During National Novel Writing Month in November 2013, she focused on polishing up her draft. She ended up with a novel that tells the story of Dramot, a sorcerer who has spent a lifetime searching for an important symbol from his youth — a mushroom rumored to have mystical power.

The novel tells the story of how Dramot tries, and ultimately fails, to reconnect with a brother, Artaeus.

At the end of the month, the event organizers gave those who completed their works five free paperback copies of their novels using a self-publishing program, Audrey said.

She went on to sell copies of a subsequent edition of the novel to a teacher who wanted to use it in class, and who invited her to speak about the publishing process, she said. During a book sale when she was in eighth grade, Audrey sold 50 copies of the book, raising $150 for Blue Chip Farms Animal Refuge, a no-kill animal shelter in Dallas.

Up next for Audrey is another novel that is still in the planning stages — she described it as an “anti-‘Atlas Shrugged’” work, referencing the dystopian novel by Ayn Rand.

“I’m going to take a long time on it because I really want to get it right,” Audrey said. “After that, I don’t know.”

570-821-2058, @cvjimhalpin

Q&A with Abby Aristeo, 57, of Trucksville

n What successful parenting strategy can you share with other parents?

“What I find works best with this child, and would probably work well with other children, is not to force them to do things they may not want to do, like sports or music. Let them try things that they think they might be interested in, and if it takes, it takes. If it doesn’t you can move on to something else. But I really feel very strongly that children should make their own decisions about how they spend their time.”

n At what moment did you realize your child was special?

“It was before she was born. It’s a very long story. I was 40 years old when I had her. She was my first live birth. It was a C-section, it was an emergency. There was a lot of hubbub and people doing things, and I was just like, la la la. She looked at me when they removed her from my body and she just was so angry with me. I could tell right away that she was going to be just loaded with personality and going to know exactly what was going on. At one point when she was very little — I suppose this is true of all babies, they look at you like they really want to communicate with you — it was obvious that she knew the secrets of the universe and was just unable to convey them. And this look of sadness in her face like, ‘By the time I learn how to talk I’m not going to remember them.’ So we’ve always had a really special relationship. We kind of read each other’s minds and finish each other’s sentences.”

n What is the greatest challenge you’ve encountered in raising your child?

“The teen years. When she was young, she was so easy. I was a learning support aide for the Dallas School District until she was in sixth grade because she was so easy to raise through her childhood. She would eat whatever I put in front of her. She slept, hygiene, everything. ... Coping with the teen years is a challenge.”

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.